My partner and I have many traditions around the Christmas period. Decorating a tree; letting our cats get covered in pine needles; eating too much… the usual stuff. We also have some slightly more unusual traditions, such as hiding tonttu around the apartment for one another to find, and painting overpriced Warhammer commemorative miniatures together. Over the last five years, we’ve done Da Goff Rocker, Terminator Chaplains, and several festive versions of Da Red Gobbo and his squig, Bounca.
Da Red Gobbo is a slightly weird character for Warhammer 40,000, although that is in the context of a setting where the most famous named characters are silly shit like Ferrus Manus (cod Latin for “iron hands”, and this is the grand-daddy of the Iron Hands chapter) or Roboute Guilliman (so basically Robert Guillaume/William, or abbreviated in UK English Bob Bill). YouTuber Arbitor Ian recently did a fun video on the origin of Da Red Gobbo, who is essentially somewhere between a mythic revolutionary figure for downtrodden workers and slaves, a parody of internecine factional strife, and an anarchic Santa stand-in. And people say Warhammer 40,000 is too serious. Shout-out to the commentor who dubbed him “Leon Grotsky”!
All right, that’s the intro out of the way. Let’s talk about the model.
I can mention a few things about the experience of painting this. For me, these commemorative minis are the ones where I will often try to push myself the hardest and paint to the best of my ability. This year I did try to be a bit faster – as last time we did this I didn’t finish my model despite continuing some hours after my partner was done, and it is supposed to be something we do together – but I did end up doing another three hours on this to get it done. So overall this is a 6-7 hour paint job.
The model was 99% painted with the new Ultracryl paints I got from a Kickstarter. Way, way back at the time of the Kickstarter, I got a sense from the promotional materials that these high pigmentation paints would be super beginner-friendly, and allow you to get nice coverage in just one coat. Since then other brands have released high-pigmentation paints (such as Army Painter’s Fanatic range) and I now don’t think Ultracryl are exceptionally beginner-friendly or single-coat paints. They are just as challenging to use as any other paint range, and in some cases more challenging. This is fine, but I admit to being a little disappointed (serves me right for buying into marketing hype, hmm). I’m an okay painter, I think, but I still struggle with dilution and flow and application, and need to work on the fundamentals of achieving smooth layers. All that said, I do like the end results I achieved, and some of the Ultracryl paints really shone: the gold is gorgeous, and the burgundy and crimson reds are delightfully vibrant. I also glazed a very thin sky blue over white to sell cold snow and ice, and that worked nicely.
Reflecting on the finished model, I can see a lot of things I’d like to improve on with my painting, and these are things I hope to work on in 2026.
- My models still lack contrast. I am trying to achieve contrast between darker and brighter areas and I am not succeeding in that. I always tell myself to be bolder with this to get punchier results.
- The attempts at contrast on the smaller goblin’s clothing are scratchy and not pleasant. I need to better learn how to paint fabric, and associated with that…
- …I need to improve at appropriate paint dilution and achieving smooth layers. (This is particularly a fucker in Finland where humidity is typically low, and acrylic paints dry fast anyway, so water-diluted paint on your brush will dry up faster than a puddle on a Texas sidewalk.)
- I should remember to rim the base. Oops, lol, etc.
To balance things out, some wins I can perceive…
- My brush control is definitely okay; my models are usually quite neat, and I am particularly pleased with the red stripes on the candy cane.
- I am getting a little better at painting green skin. The above notes re. contrast and paint consistency still apply, but green skin is where I am doing the best at contrast and so on.
- I used neon paints for the first time to add a glow effect around the fairy lights, which is cute.
- Before painting this, my previous recent attempts at painting 28mm models had led to frustration and giving up (I’ve not been in the best place mentally) but this time around, I reminded myself to stay calm, not to stress out, and not to expect constant perfection of myself. This helped me enjoy the process, rather than stew in self-criticism of the output.
- I like the goggles and think I managed to get the placement right there to sell the lens effect.
- I got the paint on the model, and that is always better than an unpainted model!
